As reported by the New York Post, bed bugs were found in various parts of the store, including on a table on the second floor, in the staff’s locker room, and in the manager’s office. One employee told the Post “it was just mayhem.”

There was a mass exodus… employees were freaking out they felt really unsafe and management kept giving them the runaround.

In the locker area, staff were told to put their belongings in two plastic bags. A bed bug sniffing beagle was brought to the store and was “activated” by the insects in the locker room.

Another employee told the Post that the problem had been going on for almost a month, but that last Friday “was the first day they acknowledged they found something.”

The employee said the issue started about three to four weeks ago during the overnight hours at the 24-hour store, which frequently has homeless visitors, when a table on the second floor was “cordoned off” because a bed bug was found, believed to have come from one of the homeless visitors.

After the initial sighting, management hired an exterminator and told staff not to worry. However, another bed bug was found a week and a half later. More spraying was done, but that didn’t seem to solve the problem as a bed bug was found again, this time in the manager’s office last Friday.

Notably, last week the store that’s open year round was suddenly closed for a “water leak.”

They remained in the dark until last week when the store, which is open 365 days a year and rarely shuts its doors, mysteriously closed for six hours during the overnight hours on a weekday for a “water leak,” an employee said.

Staff said that they received word from management over the weekend that issue was finally taken care of.